Issue 19384

Summary: Mail merge to file doesn't go to next record on a page
Product: Writer Reporter: fabienst <fabienst>
Component: uiAssignee: christian.jansen
Status: CLOSED FIXED QA Contact: issues@sw <issues>
Severity: Trivial    
Priority: P2 CC: flibby05, issues, phill.gillespie
Version: OOo 1.1 RC4   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: PC   
OS: All   
Issue Type: DEFECT Latest Confirmation in: ---
Developer Difficulty: ---
Attachments:
Description Flags
file to use to merge
none
File containing data to merge
none
Sample output Page 1 - seems to work none

Description fabienst 2003-09-10 12:21:13 UTC
Hello, 
 
I have a problem when doing mail merge to a file. I created a label and when 
mail merging, the printer output is OK. It goes to the next record after each 
"cadre" (this is a french word as i don't know how it's called in english). 
However when merging to a file, it doesn't go to the next record on a single 
page, the field values are only ok when the next page is created. 
 
Steps to reproduce : 
 
Use attached files. One is used as datasource, the other as file to do the 
merge. 
Merge to printer and verify that it is ok (each label is different) 
Now merge to file. You will check that on each page the labels are the same, 
however each page is different. 
 
I Hope this is clear enough :-)
Comment 1 fabienst 2003-09-10 12:30:19 UTC
Created attachment 9159 [details]
file to use to merge
Comment 2 fabienst 2003-09-10 12:31:54 UTC
Created attachment 9160 [details]
File containing data to merge
Comment 3 gieschke 2003-09-11 13:49:09 UTC
Created attachment 9201 [details]
Sample output Page 1 - seems to work
Comment 4 gieschke 2003-09-11 13:50:41 UTC
I've created an attachment.

Isn't this what you expected?

Each Label is different.

Win XP, German, RC4
Comment 5 fabienst 2003-09-11 13:56:29 UTC
both labels are the same for me (When I open your attachement) : 
The first shows :  
Name 1 
Rue 1 
CP1 Ville1 
 
The 2nd shows : 
Name 1 
Rue 1 
CP1 Ville1 
 
but it should show the data in the 2nd line of the spreadsheet 
 
Name 2 
Rue 2 
CP2 Ville2 
 
Comment 6 gieschke 2003-09-11 17:58:33 UTC
OK, now I see it, too.

When opening the merged file there is a request to update all "links"
(?, German "Verknüpfungen"), if i choose yes the labels will be the
same but if i choose no the labels will be different.
Comment 7 fabienst 2003-09-11 19:54:24 UTC
but that's not normal behaviour, is it ?  
Comment 8 stx123 2003-09-12 15:10:10 UTC
Hi, please let developers set the target milestone after confirmation 
and eveluation of issues.
Thanks, Stefan
Comment 9 gieschke 2003-09-12 22:50:03 UTC
> but that's not normal behaviour, is it ? 

To show an update request or the different labels?

That the contents of the labels are changend isn't normal behaviour,
of course.
Comment 10 fabienst 2003-09-13 09:25:01 UTC
> To show an update request or the different labels?

To show the labels (especialy to show the same labels on a page)
Comment 11 flibby05 2004-02-14 20:26:44 UTC
Trying to summarize..

User does a mailmerge on a label document. Mailmerge to printer device or files
work correctly. However when user will open any of the new mailmerge-generated
output docs, he will be prompted "Update all links? YES/NO".

This causes confusion, because..

1) There is no Help-button available.

2) From the program side the situation may be desribed as follows:
When working with label docs, we basically have a doc structure as

 label 2..n = label 1 (synchronization of a _label_ doc..). 

With mailmerging however we get generated docs, which have two following things,
that seem to be standing in conflict:

  Label 2..n != Label 1,

        when we are talking about the content of a label, but at the same time

  Label 2..n = Label 1,

        when we look at the structure and layout of a certain label.


Proposals:

1) Offer a working link to an entry explaining described situation in the
online-help
2) Maybe additionally a short description given to the user directly in the dialog.

3) [IMHO to be deferred..]
Documents, which are mailmerge generated from a label template, should not have
the structure of a label document, but - in order to "desynchronize" label
entries 1..n. - just the structure of a "regular" document (no inner connections)


Any input highly appreciated ! :-)
Comment 12 flibby05 2004-02-14 20:28:11 UTC
changing OS to all.
Comment 13 flibby05 2004-02-15 09:41:46 UTC
correction:

"3) [IMHO to be deferred..]"

-> "3) [IMHO to be deprecated..]"
Comment 14 flibby05 2004-02-24 15:55:56 UTC
unconfirmed -> new
Comment 15 h.ilter 2004-03-02 10:58:12 UTC
HI-OS: From my point of view the update popup should be disabled in case of
Mail-Merge docs.
Comment 16 Oliver Specht 2004-03-02 11:54:55 UTC
A doc created by mail merge is just the same as one created differently. 
The update question is caused by the existence of linked content.

In the rework of mail merge for OOo 2.0 the creation of single documents will
most probably be dropped. 

->cj: Please add this task to your mail merge issue collection
Comment 17 flibby05 2004-03-02 12:03:57 UTC
>> In the rework of mail merge for OOo 2.0 the creation of single documents will
>> most probably be dropped. 

oh no, please not! :-)

(( it's a feature i found most useful for the following scenario:
* database, which contains questions and answers
* mailmerge questions and answers into single files
* convert single *.swx-files to *.PDF-files
* import *.PDF-files into learning-card-application ))
Comment 18 lbc 2004-03-30 21:04:28 UTC
I'll second the request to leave creation of separate documents in the mail
merge system.  I use it both ways (one big file and many small files) depending
on need.
Comment 19 christian.jansen 2004-04-29 10:38:58 UTC
I'll close this task, but all comments & files are moved to 20057. This is the
main Mail Merge Task for Q.
Comment 20 christian.jansen 2004-04-29 10:39:17 UTC
.